Feeding Frenzy

I suppose that this is just the American market economy working as it is supposed to work,but lately thee seems to be a feeding frenzy as buyers, many of them young, first-time buyers, rush to pounce on foreclosed properties. Even my new neighbors are a part of that action, They bought the house behind me out of foreclosure. We certainly welcome them, since anyone new there will likely take better care of the property than the previous owner.

I've noticed that about half of my buyer customers are asking me to find them a foreclosed property. They aren't even looking at regular properties for sale. That feeding frenzy mindset is skewing the market even more. The last two foreclosed houses that I've helped put bids in on have had multiple bids; while regular homes on the market sit idle, with little to no viewing activity. The other thing happening is that buyers are using the foreclosure prices as a guideline for all bid prices on houses, resulting in lots of "low-ball" offers on homes that aren't in foreclosure. It's hard to explain to a seller that he/she shouldn't be insulted by the offers at 80% of asking price - it's just how thew market is right now.

So, what's ahead? I've afraid that the frenzy so far was just the chum in the foreclosure waters. The biggest wave of ARM re-sets is just ahead and it is predicted by many economists that this wave will result in even higher levels of foreclosure. So the frenzy may just get worse, before it gets better. It's all part of the market mechanism, of course, so I'll just have to get used to showing foreclosures to buyers. Our company even has a dedicated Web site now just for foreclosed properties - http://www.ourforclosurehomes.com go there if you're looking for a foreclosed property. You can find a link to that property on my Web site -http://www.themilfordteam.com. I'll see you out there. I'll be the one in the shark cage with the chum bucket.